The Year of Jubilee but not to Africans: A Discourse, Delivered July 4th, 1825, Being the 49th Anniversary of American Independence

“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Man, considered as a rational and social being, occupies a variety of important relations in the universe of God. In the first place he stands related to that great and glorious Being who gave him existence, and he is under the most solemn and indissoluble obligations, to the exercise of eternal reverence, love and gratitude. However indifferent he may feel, in his present fallen state, to the demands of heaven, and however negligent he may be of the duties which result from those demands, it is an incontrovertible truth, that the service of God has the first and highest claim. Hence, the first and greatest commandment of the law is declared, by the divine Saviour to be this; “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” Mark xii. 30. An immediate and constant compliance with this precept should be the first object of every human being.

But although this is the first, it is not the only duty of man. He occupies other relations, and, of course, is subjected to the authority of other duties. Passing over all the other subordinate connexions of man, as foreign from our present purpose, I shall here notice only his relation to his own species, and the obligations which result from that relation. All men are formed by the same hand, born into the same world, under the same circumstances, and are bound by considerations both of duty and interest to respect each other’s rights, and to promote each other’s happiness. These duties are next in importance to those which relate to God. Therefore, our blessed Lord, after declaring the precept already quoted to be the first commandment of the law, adds, “And the second is like” to it, “Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself.” He then declares, with respect to both, “There is no commandment greater than these.” Here then we have a concise, but complete exposition of man’s duty in relation to his own species. It is applicable to all the possible circumstances of life; and at the same time, so plain, that the smallest share of intellect is sufficient to understand and apply it. It accords precisely with that golden rule which the Saviour delivered, in his sermon on the mount; “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” Matthew vii. 12. That is, all the duties which God has ever required of man in relation to his own species, either in the law or the prophets, are comprehended in this single precept, Do to others just as you would wish them to do to you. Did this principle regulate the conduct of all men, the earth would instantly resume the first bloom of Eden. Not only would war, and murder and rapine cease to desolate the earth, but animosities and contention and oppression of every kind and degree would instantly disappear. Adventitious circumstances might still produce distinctions in the relative situations of men; but pride, that fiend of hell and enemy of happiness, would be banished from the human breast; and one more prospered of heaven than his fellows, would look down upon them, not to despise their poverty, nor to rejoice in their misery, nor to deprive them of their liberty; (the last earthly blessing that man can lose;) but to compassionate their necessities, to console them under adversity, and to administer to their relief. The whole human family would be bound together by the sense of a common nature, and the bonds of sincere affection: in a word, they would feel that they were bone of each other’s bone; and flesh of each other’s flesh; and in all cases, and under all circumstances, they would act like brethren.